Art and apparatus for games



July 19, 1932. R. s BLAlR u ART AND APPARATUS FOR GAMES Filed Aug.' 25, 1928 Patented July 19, 1932 PATENT ortica #mamarsl .rumor stuurman coNNEc'rrcr-.rr

. ar Aim firmamos omas `Application led'ugust 25, L928`. Serial No.l 302,001. l Y

This invention relates to anart and ap paratus for games and, with regardto its more specific features, to improving the ease and accuracy oscoringfin variousgames.

Une of" the objects'thereois to provide a simple and practieal'rneans for improving ease an'claecnraeyofseoring; Another objfeotisto provide- Inea-ns'of the above natureofeicient and depemiable action. Other obj ects'f are to provide meansA `of the above naturevchair:n.fct'eriiedf 'by the Iesseningl of delays the increasing of certainty; the adapt#v ability to a wide varietyvof'games and to convenienlin carryingthe samel on. A11- otherr is toprovidea practical' andv convenient art 'forading' in the attainment of' the' above results. Other vobjects will bein part obvious and inpart pointed out hereinafter.

The invention' accordingly eonsistsin the features'A ofconstruction, combinations of ele ments; arrangements of parts, and in the` several stepsand relation and4 order of' eachy of tht/same to one or more of' the others, allf as will beillustrativelydeseribed herein, and thescope of the application o-f which will!"V begindioatedfin following claims;

In the accorn-panyii'ig-` drawing, in which is shown one of various possible embodiments themechanical features of this invention,

Figure l is a diagrammatic-plan cfa base'- ball homefpl'ateyl n Fig. 2 is a diagrammaticY illustration ofv theaction of the apparatus; Y

VIlig. Wis ay sectionalv elevationtaken ,along1 the line 3?-3 of Fig. l' showing-the parts on an enlargedscale;

.Fig is a diagrammatic plan ofwiring' connections; 4

Similar reference' characters/refer to. similar partsthroughoat the 'several viewsY ofV the drawing, i j

fHe'f' "'ng now to Fig;A E of the drawing, there is shown; by--way of illustration of an embodimento-f the invention, a home-plate I0 for rrsein'thev-gameof baseball. As isi well known, the half must pass verticallythis; plate in order to constitute al strik'e In certain locations, and'partieularly under certain vcondi-'tim-isfoflight',A it is difficult to ascertain whether ornot the ball in transit hasv passed overtheplate when its travel is nearly over' one of itsflatera- 55 edges;

Referring now to Fig;` 3 ofthe drawing, there is shown'V a portion of the plate I0 pro-- vided' with Aan aperture-1l `and ha-ving' seeuredv Within said Yaperture the upper reduced end 00 I2 of a casing 13 'which may'be'bolted asiat H to the under surfaceof the plate andextend downwardly into the ground.` Within this casing'is mounted'an electriclight' bulb l5'y preferably having an elongated filament lying, substantially at the focal-axis of are flector 16' which is parabolic in cross-section and nwhich would Lthereby tend to throwI upwardly a sheet' "of: parallel rays. These rays; strike a suitable lens 17a-nd are condensed upon a lensy 18`-v ofsuch'form` as' to discharge the/'rays vertically upwardly' in parallel rela tion and of aV much greater density; thany when they ystrike they lens 17'. Therel is thus thro-wn upwardly from the. lens 185 a, much*- concentrated' parallel-ray Beam' of" light which ispre-ferally slightly wider inpa direc'- tion transverse ofthe plate 10 than itis ina direction longitudinal thereof;l This Beam' is intended to strike the under surfacey of: a' ball passing directly thereover', and itis of" suchthickness in the direction ofitravelV of the-'ball as to illuminate asubstantial' part of the end surface so as to perm-it the illumina'- n tion .t0 be readily seen. The elongation in a s direction transverse tothe plate is' toi causeI this illumination of the ball whenever'it is" near the edge andl thus'greatly aid in determining whetlier the ball hasY passed; over-the plate whenitstransit'is in theneighborhoodl 90 ofthe vertical plane through the` sidetof theA y plate.y lIt is so positioned with respect toi the; edge that Whenever' the lower-surface of the; ball is lilluminatedv hy thel beam, the' travel ofI the ballconstitutes a strike l 9" l't is'understoodthat one of'these` illumil-v nati-'ng devices is positionedi'at eachside of?. theplagte receiving light' from asin* ev` lamp, ii?"necessary',` bv suitable reflectors; -t alsol to-beunderstood that the of light, lWhile-v v greatly concentratedto be of'a high intensity, n is nevertheless of a small cross-section as 1s permissible with effective illumination'ofl the I upper surface of these parts is cleansed by the under surface ofthe ball. n

In order to prevent obscuringiof the beam l of light bythe collection ofdirt upon the lens l8dand in order toremove dintel'ectively from the upperfsurface of a homfeplate-and thus permit it to be more readily seen by the',

pitcher and umpire, there is showninFig. 3 of the drawing a casingl 19' buried.inf'th'e ground,as is the case with casing13 and i edseeandi thlsffeatur preferably positioned at oneside thereof. Y"In this Vcasing is mounted anjelectricmotor 20 driving a fan 21`which may"drawv air'through* afduct 22,y fromV `anintake 23,v at 'y any Q desired distance. The discharge `ofthe fan passes;- y through acondiiitfl and-,thence .to a thin;

andy ,laterally elongated nozzle-25. ,flatl fxvidejetf airidisncharged through said lnoz;-E

-zle upon the operation vof the motor not; only cleanses the'gdnst land' dirt from, ,the lippen surface of the lens18,b11t also from the adjaeentnpperfsurfane of the, plntenwits lateral tisto .beunderstoodthat although applicants invention, Y nevertheless it is ofv valueinuSeindenendeny thereef.. in provid-1. ingVa'imeans'forcleansing the upper surface ofa homefplate.. .1,

Y `rlapthnie lmnp115am1 thea-materno, suing grammatically indicated in Fig. 'A5 lof the,v

drawing, j are A provided... with i circuits leading to, any desiredV source of supply, such as gthe,

mains ff'lhesecircuits are respectively underfmanual control by. the? switches 27 and 2S, itbeingunderstood ,thatthie Switch 28 is'.

'closed- ,whenever itis desired: to cleanse the" uppersurface of the plate and the switch 27.

may .nit-herbe left' Closed .thrnnshnnf the gln.

or` anyportion thereof or rmay beunder` control; of. the umpir-eand .closedv only.- `during theV raus'if-.vnlpe-andere@ .thnthegame Y carried on. in ythe ordinarymanneybutjthat.

Whenever Ythe ball, Hdiagrammatically indi,-

'V CatedfatQQin Figi-2. ofl the drawing, -fpasses v has inV fact passed Vover the plate, the vflash of,

through :onelofthe planesO insuchfmanner as gtogrenderit doubtfulV whether it is a. sof]V illumination-of itsl lower sidey wOuld,, giveevi.-`

i' dence of suchfa'ct.; Itis also ltoibe noted that' even thoughut @be ,comparatively light, upon thev field, nevertheless the.upwardlyA projected and@ darkestv PQiiOn Whnh muchv enhances .isgof particular indvantngein combination ,with the remaining .features of5 dirt has collected upon :the plate.V or upon one of the lenseslS or both, the switch 28 is closed fora brief interval of time, whereupon the are susceptible of embodiment in 'various I typesof apparatus, and asthe art'features 'ofthisninvention"mightbe carried von with apparatus of other form, it is to be undervAs variousfchanges might be made in the "stoodfthat'allfmatter lherein described or 'Y (shown,inthe;accompanying drawing is'to limiting sense. g;

I Claimz' kln apparaths .ffor ngameskgandl the like,

be interpreted" a's"ill`1istrative and not in a in combination, an vobjective,aparatus.adjafY i .cent which projectilestraveh.meansadapted to} throw.- Qlight in a' direction I to `illum inate inQJQCLI-QSy Passing. over. said. Obi-entire, andVV means. adapted' toY .confine ySnidlght .inte a pair ofparallel beamsyertically positioned at, the lateral extrel'nitiesAoirsaidobjective.VVV j 1 f" In.apparatus forgamesfand,,the,lung-iinV Combination, an; .Objectivenpperatnsetowan.

whichprojectiles aregdischarged ina gama.

rmeans adapted to lthrow,,vertica'lly.upward a beam jof lightfrom said objective, and f nlnnnslnollnted ndianentsnde Objective. appavratus and,.coactingftherewithadapted to re'fj move ,dirt interfering with.Y the ktransmission? of said-light. f n .c I. y A Infepnnrntnsfor the-garng-Qffbaseball, in-..combination,j a home Lplate, and means adapted to throw. a. beam oflight one edge oflwhic'h extends substantially,vertically(in: v

line witha lateral extremity of said plate,

'in iQOInbnnt-om; vhenne :Plate i and: Ineensadapted to throwplightupwardly from' sul);` stantially the V,level iof ,saidVV plate withj subf- 'swntielvpnrllel rays', ftwefedsefprtions. .of

said light extending ts'ubstantialljr; vertically A11oY Vupward respectively infline Vvwith"the,two

lateral extremities of said plate;A

ij 5.Inapparatusffor games and I in combinationnmeans,indicatingthe lateral: f'

l limits'` Qiapredetermined,upright lmdlatere. ally limited .plane through .which aibody to pass vin the course of thecontest, asource o fflight, and means; `for.,throwing a lsheet of light in said `plane from said (sourcearrangedf n-.ndf adapted t0 @illuminate emornentnrlyi a portion of saidbody passing therethrough and thereby: .indicate its y passage.' Y

ally limitedfplne fthroughwhicha. body'lis,

adapted,}to .emit light v and Imeans deriving light jtherefrom adapted to .thro,vf.,light'*upf waldly `in., apair ofparallelbe'ains,the sub-L 13 August, 1928.

' ROBERT SQ BLAIR.v

CERTFIGATE 0F CORRECTION.

Patent No. 1,868,088. July 19, 1932.

ROBERT S. BLAIR.

It is hereby certified that error appears in the printed specification ofthe above numbered patent requiring correction as follows: Page 2, line 130, claim 6, strike out the word "parallel", and page 3, line l, strike out the word "outer"; and that the said Letters Patent should be read with these corrections therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Office.

Signed and sealed this 2nd day of May, A. D. 1933.

M. J. Moore,

(Seal) Acting Commissioner of Patents. 

